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Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) announced today that this will be her last term in the Senate. One of NASA and NOAA's strongest supporters, her departure in 2016 will mark the end of an era.

Mikulski is currently the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and on its Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that funds NASA and NOAA. In the last Congress, when Democrats controlled the Senate, she chaired both the full committee and the subcommittee, the first woman to hold the Appropriations gavel at the full committee level on either side of Capitol Hill.

There is little doubt that her strong support of the civil space program is founded on the location of major space companies and government agencies in her home state of Maryland. NOAA headquarters is in Silver Spring, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is in Greenbelt, and Lockheed Martin is headquartered in Bethesda to name a few. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility is in neighboring Virginia on the DelMarVa (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) peninsula, but many of its workers live in Maryland and Wallops is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center. Mikulski herself jokes that when someone comes to her asking for funding she asks three questions: "What does this do for the Nation?," "What does this do for Maryland?," and "What did you say again this does for Maryland"?

Her support is not unconditional, however. She has been one of NOAA's harshest critics over the years on its management of weather satellite programs after the NPOESS overruns that led to its cancellation and early indications that the successor JPSS program was headed in the same direction. Just last week she sternly told Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at a hearing on the FY2016 NOAA budget request that she would be closely watching the Department's management of JPSS and the Polar Follow On program NOAA is requesting this year. She also called NASA to task for the skyrocketing overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) several years ago and demanded an independent review (the Casani report), which led to a development cost cap of $8 billion set by law. The agreement seems to have sealed her support and last year she enthusiastically told an audience at Goddard Space Flight Center (where JWST is managed) that "I saved you from the Tea Party."

This is her fifth term in the Senate, which followed a decade in the House of Representatives representing Baltimore, MD. She was the first Democratic woman Senator elected to the Senate in her own right and one of only two women in the Senate when she took office there in 1987. Today, there are 20. She is the longest serving woman in the U.S. Congress. In announcing her retirement among her constituents in East Baltimore today, she said she had thought long and hard about how she wanted to spend the next two years "fighting to keep my job or fighting for your job," "raising money or raising hell to meet your day-to-day needs," "focusing on my election or the next generation." She said she chose "to give you 120 percent of my time with all of my energy focused on you and your future."

Although her passion is serving her constituents, she also seems to be genuinely interested in NASA's science programs in particular. For the past several years she has been paired with Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) on the CJS subcommittee, an advocate of human spaceflight, giving NASA a strong foundation of support across its portfolio on that crucially important panel. Her departure two years from now will leave quite a void,

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of March 2-6, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session.

During the Week

A passel of congressional hearings are on tap this week on the FY2016 budget requests for NASA, DOD, the Department of Commerce (including NOAA) and the Department of Transportation (including FAA). Most congressional hearings are webcast on the respective committee's website. The exceptions are hearings held in the Capitol where, unfortunately, the House Appropriations CJS subcommittee holds many of its hearings. Its hearings this week on the Department of Commerce budget request and on NASA's budget request are a case in point. One must be physically present in the tiny room (H-309 Capitol) to hear the discussion. All the other hearings this week should be webcast, however.

For those already weary of Washington politics or just looking for something uplifting, tomorrow's (Monday's) briefing on Dawn's impending arrival at Ceres should be fun. The intrepid spacecraft, which already sent back fascinating data about the asteroid Vesta, will arrive at Ceres on March 6. The briefing is at JPL and will be webcast on JPL's Ustream channel and NASA TV. We haven't seen an announcement about coverage on March 6 itself, but will post whatever information comes our way later this week.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

NASA International Space Station (ISS) program managers decided today that Wednesday's "water in the helmet" episode is not an impediment to proceeding with another spacewalk on Sunday. The ISS Mission Management Team (IMMT) gave approval for the spacewalk to proceed this morning.

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Barry "Butch" Wilmore are conducting a trio of spacewalks to get docking ports ready to accept commercial crew spacecraft when they begin flying in 2017. The first two on February 21 and February 25 went fine, but after Virts reentered the airlock on February 25 and it began repressurizing, he noticed water inside his helmet.

Virts was wearing spacesuit 3005 and NASA immediately explained that the same suit had a similar problem after a December 2013 spacewalk. NASA is very sensitive to water incursion after a very serious incident in July 2013 when ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet filled with water during a spacewalk while he was still outside the ISS.

This time was entirely different, according to NASA officials. The lead EVA spacewalk officer, Alex Kanelakos, said on NASA's Space Station Live program after the IMMT decision that it was only a small amount of water, 15 milliliters (ml), and it has happened seven times previously with this spacesuit. He explained that a small amount of "carryover water" can develop inside the helmet during repressurization. NASA considers up to 57 ml to be permissable. Kanelakos did not say exactly how much water filled Parmitano's helmet in July 2013, but indicated it was many times more.

Because this has happened with suit 3005 several times, Kanelakos said that although NASA does not "expect" it to happen, it is a "known feature" of that suit.

NASA posted an explanation later in the day saying the suit "has a history of what is called 'sublimator water carryover', a small amount of residual water in the sublimator cooling component that can condense once the environment around the suit is repressurized following its exposure to vacuum during a spacewalk...."

Why Virts and his ISS crewmates were surprised and concerned about the water is unclear if it is a known feature and has happened seven times in the past with this suit.

In any case, the spacewalk was given the go-ahead to proceed on Sunday, March 1, beginning at about 7:10 am ET. NASA TV coverage will begin at 6:00 am ET. The spacewalk is expected to last 6 hours 45 minutes.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts performed a successful 6 hour 43 minute spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS) today, but after they were back inside the airlock, during repressurization, Virts noticed water inside his helmet. It was a small amount compared to a major incident in July 2013, but NASA is now investigating what went wrong and whether another spacewalk planned for Sunday can go forward.

What little is known at this moment is that Virts noticed the water while he was face down in the airlock during repressurization. In zero gravity, being face up or down should not matter. He immediately reported it and ISS crewmate Samantha Cristoforetti (from the European Space Agency -- ESA) began to help him remove the helmet. That requires a number of steps and the process was not rushed since there was no emergency. At one point ground controllers asked Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who was assisting Cristoforetti, to point a camera directly at Virts' helmet so they could see what he was experiencing. The blob of water was clearly visible adhering to the interior of his visor.

No problems were reported during the spacewalk itself. It occurred only once Virts and Wilmore were back inside the airlock and it was repressurized to 5 pounds per square inch (psi). Repressurization pauses at that point for a suit check before continuing to full repressurization to 14.7 psi.

At the request of ground controllers, once the helmet was removed, Cristoforetti touched the water to determine its temperature as part of troubleshooting steps. She reported that it was cold. She also reported that the Helmet Absorption Pad (HAP) at the back of the helmet was damp, but not saturated. Virts later added that the water was not from his drink bag, which was fine, and that the water had a chemical taste.

NASA's TV commentator reported that this suit, 3005, had a similar problem after a December 2013 spacewalk and that it occurred at exactly the same point -- when repressurization reached 5 psi.

The December 2013 spacewalk was necessitated by the failure of a key ISS component (a coolant loop) and performed on a contingency basis because of an earlier and much more serious event in July 2013. At that time, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano's helmet filled with water while he was outside the ISS performing the spacewalk. The cause ultimately was determined to be a clogged filter that allowed water from the suit's cooling system to enter the helmet. Parmitano later wrote a compelling account of the experience. NASA has been even more careful about ensuring the spacesuits are functioning properly since then and implemented a number of changes -- including installing HAPs to soak up any water that does enter a helmet. That apparently was at least partially successful today.

NASA will now investigate this incident. NASA said this afternoon that a decision on whether to proceed with Sunday's spacewalk will be made at an already scheduled management meeting on Friday.

Today's spacewalk is the second of a trio that Wilmore and Virts are performing to ready ISS docking ports to be able to accommodate U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. The first was successfully conducted on February 21. NASA hopes to complete all three before March 12 when Wilmore will return to Earth as part of a routine crew rotation. Two of the three spacewalks were delayed by a day as NASA worked an earlier issue with the suits' fan pump separators.

Sen. Ted Cruz’s first hearing as chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA and commercial space activities was politely inquisitive and not confrontational as some expected.Cruz (R-TX), a leading Tea Party activist, is a relative unknown quantity on space issues.The hearing exhibited that he is an advocate of U.S. leadership in space, ending U.S. reliance on Russia, and supporter of commercial space.

As is typical, few Senators attended yesterday’s hearing before the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), the top Democrat (Ranking Member) on the subcommittee, and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), were there only briefly because they also serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where Secretary of State John Kerry was testifying at the same time.(Ironically, Gardner unseated Udall’s cousin, Mark Udall, for that Colorado Senate seat in last year’s election.)

Cruz chaired the hearing for the full duration and was joined for most of it by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who was the chairman of this subcommittee in the last Congress when Democrats controlled the Senate.Nelson is now Ranking Member of the full committee.Cruz was the Ranking Member on the subcommittee in the last Congress, so the two have worked together on these topics in the past as well as on other committees and rarely see eye to eye.In this case, however, Cruz’s opening statement was a pep talk about the space program full of familiar themes about the need for U.S. leadership in space and ending U.S. dependence on Russia.Nelson noted the similarities in their views on those subjects, at least, and the two bantered about how the fact that they agreed on something could be used against them in future political campaigns.

The hearing broke little new ground, but sparked interesting dialogue.One panel of former astronauts offered the usual hopes of human trips to Mars coupled with familiar warnings that NASA’s budget needs to grow to accomplish such a goal.A second panel of industry and academic experts offered perspectives on commercial space, U.S. leadership, future human spaceflight destinations, and preferences in reauthorizing the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA).

The first panel was comprised of three former astronauts:Apollo 7’s Walter Cunningham, Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin (the second man to walk on the Moon), and space shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino.The second panel was Boeing’s John Elbon, George Washington University’s Scott Pace, and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Eric Stallmer.

Cruz is a vocal climate change skeptic and concerns were widely expressed in the space community when he became chairman of this subcommittee that he would use his position to try to restrict funding for NASA’s earth science research.Cunningham is also a climate change skeptic and his inclusion on the panel fueled expectations that the hearing would focus on that topic.In fact, however, climate change barely arose and only in response to a question from Udall to Massimino about whether he agreed that NASA should remain a multi-mission agency including funding programs for earth observation.Massimino discoursed about how the International Space Station is a great “perch” for viewing Earth and his belief that if NASA can help with any of the problems facing the country and the world, it should.

Except for his opening statement, Cruz kept his own views to himself and asked thought provoking questions that allowed the witnesses an opportunity to share their perspectives.

Cruz’s key messages in that statement were: NASA needs to get back to its “core priorities” of exploring space; the United States should be the leader in space; SLS and Orion are critical to exploring space “whether it is Moon, Mars or beyond” (omitting mention of asteroids); U.S. dependence on Russia for access to ISS is “unacceptable” and it is “imperative” that we be able to get to the ISS without the Russians; the commercial crew program is “critical” to ending U.S. dependence on Russia; and the United States should be able to launch national security satellites without Russian engines.He said he is encouraged by progress on commercial cargo and crew, but “maximum efficiency and expedition” are needed, and he will be an “enthusiastic advocate of competition and the enabling of the private sector to compete and innovate.” He ended by saying “There is no limit to human imagination or desire for exploration …. America has always led the way in space exploration and we need to reclaim that leadership.”

Interesting tidbits from the hearing include the following:

Gardner, the freshman Senator from Colorado, wrote to NASA when he was 9 (in 1983) because he wanted to be an astronaut. He brought along with him to the hearing the letter that NASA wrote in response encouraging him to study hard and so forth. He noted that since then he has lived through the space shuttle program and, seeing it end, wondered if NASA is still capturing the imagination of today’s youth.

The first panel was asked for their thoughts about the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). Massimino said that an incremental approach to future human spaceflight is needed and, whatever it is, the key is to be consistent, keep options open, and keep momentum going. Cunningham said that whatever we do will be expensive and unless Congress decides to increase NASA’s budget “this is just talk.” Aldrin said “you can fly it the way it is, you can cancel it, or you can do something smart in between” and offered an alternative where a robotic probe as well as a crew would travel to an asteroid in its native orbit. The crew, including scientists and asteroid mining and robotic experts, would spend 60 days there (as part of a one-year trip).

Aldrin explained in great detail his plan for human exploration of Mars using “cyclers” (described in his written statement). He and students at Purdue are studying some of the details and he expects the report to be completed in April. He proposes that “most” crews remain on Mars building a permanent settlement, with only some returning to Earth.

Aldrin offered his view that the United States and China should cooperate in space and noted that this summer is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) and just as the United States and Soviet Union found a way to cooperate on that mission during the Cold War, we should be able to find a way to work with China today.

There was disagreement on whether the United States should send astronauts back to the lunar surface. Aldrin thinks other countries should do that, not the United States because we already have and we should not get “bogged down” there. Instead the United States should focus on Mars. Cunningham said he used to believe there was no need to return to the lunar surface, but has changed his mind and now thinks lunar surface missions are needed as an intermediate step to Mars. When the second panel had its turn, Pace made it clear that he still believes a return to the lunar surface is needed (he was a top NASA official during the George W. Bush Administration when the Constellation program was underway). Pace wants Congress to direct NASA to develop concepts for returning to the lunar surface with commercial partners. He also stressed the need to align U.S. plans with international interests, and potential international partners want to land on the Moon. However, he emphasized, international cooperation “is a means, not an end.” His overall argument is that “rules on a frontier are made by the people who show up, not the ones who stay behind” so the United States needs to be there.

Stallmer argued for extension of third party liability indemnification and of the “learning period” for commercial human spaceflight (where the FAA cannot impose new regulations for a certain period of time) when reauthorizing CSLA.

Cruz asked about impediments to expansion of commercial space. Stallmer cited regulatory uncertainty and that any disruption of the commercial crew schedule would be a significant setback. Elbon and Pace both said that extending the life of ISS is important for the commercial cargo and commercial crew markets. Pace stressed the need for a predictable environment for investment and the need to plan for what will come after ISS – “if you’re not planning today what you’re going to do next, you’re planning to go out of business.” He foresees commercial cargo and crew expanding to serve lunar surface missions.

Cruz asked how quickly we could end our reliance on Russia for crew access to the ISS and the RD-180 rocket engine used on the Atlas V. Elbon said that Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew spacecraft is on schedule to be ready by 2017 and is paced by internal work, not dollars – “we need to apply the level of money we proposed in our contract.” The implication is that more money would not accelerate the program. Elbon praised the RD-180 and argued for a “thoughtful” process in shifting to a new U.S.-built engine to replace it. Pressed by Cruz to define a thoughtful approach, Elbon said the “pipeline” of RD-180s should be kept open as long as possible rather than setting a hard date for ending the contract (as is done in the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act). Boeing and Lockheed Martin jointly own the United Launch Alliance, which builds and launches Atlas V, and Boeing plans to use Atlas V to launch CST-100.

The written statements of the witnesses and an archived webcast are available on the committee’s website.

The Space Frontier Foundation, the National Space Society and nine other organizations are forming a new Alliance for Space Development "dedicated to influencing the goals of space development and settlement."

A press conference announcing the formation of the alliance is scheduled for Wednesday (February 25) on Capitol Hill.

But the others should be of interest, too: Wednesday's House hearing with the NASA Inspector General (and his counterparts at the Departments of Commerce and Justice) and hearings on the FY2016 budget requests for the Department of Transportation (including the Office of Commercial Space Transportation), Air Force (where many national security space programs reside), and the Department of Commerce (home of NOAA). Many congressional hearings are webcast (though usually not the ones held in the U.S. Capitol), so you can enjoy them live or later in archived webcasts. We'll provide summaries of as many of them as we can.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will hold his first space-related hearing next week as chairman of the Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Among the six witnesses is Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin along with another Apollo veteran, Walt Cunningham, and space shuttle astronaut Mike Massimino.

The hearing is entitled "U.S. Human Exploration Goals and Commercial Space Competitiveness." In addition to the panel of former astronauts, a second panel includes representatives of industry and academia: John Elbon, Vice President and General Manager, Boeing Space Exploration; Scott Pace, Director, Space Policy Institute at George Washington University; and Eric Stallmer, President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger last month that Cruz posted on his office website, he said that he is "an enthusiastic advocate of competition and allowing the private sector to innovate." He also signaled support for Orion and the Space Launch System and said he wants to refocus NASA on its "core priority of exploring space."

Cruz is an ardent advocate of cutting federal spending and is widely credited (or blamed) for the 16-day government shutdown in 2013 and delaying Senate adjournment in December 2014 due to his strong views on budgetary and other issues. What that will mean for NASA is anyone's guess this early in deliberations.

Democrats recently announced that Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) will be the ranking member of this subcommittee. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who chaired the subcommittee in the last Congress when the Senate was under Democratic control, is now the ranking member of the full committee. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) chairs the full committee.

This is the committee that will consider the President's nomination of MIT Professor Dava Newman to be NASA Deputy Administrator. No date has been announced for a confirmation hearing. Under usual procedures, it is also the committee that would consider a new NASA authorization bill, although the House has already passed such a bill and it could go directly to the Senate floor for debate if desired. The Senate never took up the House-passed NASA authorization bill last year. This year's House bill is virtually identical to last year's although it contains funding recommendations based on FY2015 rather than FY2014 appropriations levels. It does not make recommendations for future year funding.

The hearing is on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 2:00 pm ET in 253 Russell Senate Office Building.

OrbitalATK President and CEO David Thompson said today that the company plans the first flight of its upgraded Antares rocket on March 1, 2016 from Wallops Flight Facility, VA. An Antares exploded at liftoff in October 2014 destroying a Cygnus capsule loaded with supplies for the International Space Station (ISS). The upgraded Antares will use a different rocket engine.

Thompson and two other top officials of the new company held an investors teleconference this morning. The merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) closed on February 9. Thompson and CFO Garrett Pierce are from the Orbital side of the merger; COO Blake Larson is from ATK.

Data presented by the trio this morning show that 56 percent of the company's revenue is from national security programs, 26 percent from commercial programs, and 18 percent from NASA and other civil government programs. NASA programs were numbers two and three of the five top revenue producers last year: NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to take cargo to the ISS (approximately $300 million) and the propulsion system for the Space Launch System (about $250 million). In first place was small caliber ammunition for the Army ($430 million). Fourth was medium and large caliber ammunition for the Army ($225 million) and fifth place was a tie between missile defense interceptors and tactical missiles, both at $150 million.

Public attention is focused on the merged company's recovery from the Antares failure. Thompson was confident that OrbitalATK will be able to fulfill its contract with NASA to deliver 20 tons of cargo to the ISS by the end of 2016. Between now and the first launch of the upgraded Antares, OrbitalATK will launch one of its Cygnus spacecraft on a competitor's rocket -- United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5. Thompson said that launch will be ready for flight in early October, but NASA may want to wait until later that month or November, depending on other ISS activities. That will be followed by the March 1 launch of the upgraded Antares and two more later in the year. The Cygnus itself is an upgraded model as well that can carry more cargo than the earlier version, allowing OrbitalATK to meet the tonnage requirements with only four more launches instead of five.

Thompson said that NASA is not asking the company to fly a demonstration launch of the upgraded rocket -- the March 1 launch will have a full cargo load. However, in January the company will conduct a test firing of the first stage on the launch pad at Wallops.

The first stage is built in Ukraine by Yuzhmash and Thompson was asked if he had any concerns considering the situation there. Thompson replied that he needs five more Antares first stages over the next two-and-a-half years and three are complete and the other two are "almost" complete. "We're watching closely with nearly full time presence" at Yuzhmash and "we do have a fallback plan if things really deteriorate there." No details were provided during the teleconference and the company has not yet responded to a query from SpacePolicyOnline.com about what that plan is.

The engines used for the original version of Antares were old Russian NK-33 engines manufactured more than four decades ago and refurbished here by Aerojet Rocketdyne and redesignated AJ26. Thompson said shortly after the October 28 launch failure that early indications were that the engines were the cause of the failure 15 seconds after launch.

The replacement engines also are Russian, but newer RD-181s built by NPO Energomash, a subsidiary of Energia. In a January 16, 2015 press release, Energia's President Vladimir Solntsev said the two companies had been working on the contract for three years. According to that press release, the contract value is $1 billion for 60 engines (plus engineering services), but apparently that is a firm contract for 20 engines plus two options for 20 more engines each. The first two engines are due to be delivered in June 2015. The RD-181 was "developed specifically" for Antares, according to the Energia press release, based on the RD-191 engine built for Russia's new Angara rocket family. Orbital/OrbitalATK itself has released very little information about the contract.